over the last month, despite hurricane sandy, it is still up 5%. but would going over the fiscal cliff hurt or derail the insurance giant as many expect it to derail business in general? joining me now is the chairman and ceo of allstate. thank you for joining us. president and congressional leaders are meeting with state governors today. you're one of the ceos who met at the white house with some of your other colleagues in business. what's your stance of where we are right now in terms of a deal? >> i'm concerned about it. the good news is everybody sees this as an opportunity to really show american global leadership. the rest of the world is all messed up on this. we can show them how to get it done. they've also all agreed on the three buckets, that being revenues, entitlements, and spending reductions. the bad news is they haven't agreed on how much into each bucket. and i don't think they're trying to create a win/win for each other. most good negotiations, you try to help the other person come out with a win. i don't see that here. >> you h